Progressive groups question CEO lobby for Cuomo

April 23, 2012

Albany, NY — Two of New York’s growing progressive groups said Monday that a committee of CEOs lobbying on behalf of Gov. Andrew Cuomo is really a “Super PAC” for wealthy interests that a state regulatory board has failed to investigate.

Community Voices Heard and VOCAL-NY, anti-poverty groups often associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement and unions, cited a story Saturday by The Associated Press about the lobbying group The Committee to Save New York. The committee was created in 2010 to fund TV and radio advertising campaigns to support Cuomo’s agenda. It denies being a Super PAC.

The AP reported the committee failed to file its required report as a nonprofit group with the state Charities Registration Bureau as it raised and spent $10 million for Cuomo. It was created in part to blunt multimillion ad campaigns by organized labor that sank some initiatives of previous governors.

“The Committee to Save New York has skirted the law, failing to disclose its donors to the state charities bureau,” Community Voices Heard and VOCAL-NY said in a statement released Monday. “It seems apparent to anyone following public reports that the committee’s work has been done with the blessing of, or perhaps even at the direction of, the governor’s office.”